


Style

by Kenabee



Series: Inspired [1]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, small town AU, still soccer au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-10 07:21:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20131531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kenabee/pseuds/Kenabee
Summary: So @preathbar on tumblr posted an ask about how Tobin gave off James Dean vibes at the Re— lunch today and that someone should do a fic based on Taylor Swift’s “Style.” So I did.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Again, English is not my first language, if there are mistakes please inform me. If you’re waiting for an update on Here We Go Again, they’re coming I swear. @herstuf on tumblr.

Tobin looks like a female James Dean. 

That’s Christen’s first thought, the first one they meet off the pitch. She’s never seen her without a pair of shorts or sweats, and the tight black pants and white shirt are doing things to her she never really expected. 

_ It’s probably just the wine,  _ she thinks, accounting for the fuzzy thoughts in her head and the sudden fascination she has with Tobin’s neck. They haven’t even spoken tonight, Tobin on a revolving switch between yelling with Allie and talking quietly with Alex. 

Their small club team just won the county championship, and the other teams are out as well, celebrating at the only good bar downtown. It’s packed, as packed as their small town can be, and Christen has been passed arm to arm being introduced to people. 

When she moved, from LA to a small town in Oregon, she hadn’t expected the friendliness of it all, how everyone seemed genuinely excited to meet her. She’d left L.A. to get away from the world for a bit, taken the a new, remote job with a “hell yes” that surprised her roommates. But she likes it here, likes that there’s only three bars, likes that nobody seems to ask about her relationships, nobody seems to care about anything beyond their small town sports teams and barbecues. It’s suburban and domestic in a way that terrified Chris as a child but now feels more comfortable than anything else before. 

Eventually she thinks she’s met everyone, some people twice, and the bar starts to empty, people going home to families and early mornings. Chris herself is on her fourth or fifth cup of wine, and Kelley is talking a mile a minute about some kind of new song or dance she wants to try. Christen just raises an eyebrow, watching as her excitement bubbles over, until she runs off to find Sonny. 

She finds herself somewhat alone for the first time all night, and takes the moment to breath in and look around. There’s only about 15 people left, so it’s easier to find Tobin in the crowd, leaning back against the bar, looking out around the bar herself. When their eyes meet Tobin raises her beer in a salute, Christen winks back, feeling bold. It makes Tobin smile, and a little bit of pride and warmth blooms in Christen’s chest. Still, she keeps looking around, observing the room, trying not to seem obvious. 

She turns around, curiously watches Emily and Kelley play a game of pool with out the sticks, instead using a pair of chopsticks. Christen has no idea where they found them, wants to ask, but then Emily’s hand is sliding up Kelley’s arm and twirling her hair, and Christen is turning away fast so she doesn’t get caught staring at... whatever they are doing. 

When she does turn around she jumps and nearly spills her drink, because Tobin is right next to her, silently watching her. Christen raises a hand to her chest and lets out a puff of air, making Tobin’s mouth quirk up. 

“Sorry.” She says, but she’s clearly not. 

“Are you?” Christen says, still feeling emboldened by the alcohol. 

“Not really.” Tobin says, really smiling now. “It’s kind of nice to know you’re not always so... unflappable.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” Tobin shakes her head, still smiling, and Christen feels like she might be the butt of some kind of joke she doesn’t understand. She frowns, but lets it go as Tobin flicks her head towards Emily and Kelley. “What’s with them?”

“Oh god, please don’t ask.” Christen says, raising a hand to her forehead. Tobin laughs, throwing her head back a little, and it brings Chris’s attention back to her neck. 

“Touchy subject?” Christen just shakes her head in response, then takes a large sip of her wine, ignoring the way she feels with Tobin so close to her, looking like that. Tobin’s smile fades a little watching, a crease in her forehead forming. 

“You’re not driving home tonight, are you?” She says, and the concern in her voice has Christen feeling things she doesn’t want to name yet. 

“No, I walked, I’m only like five blocks away.” She says and Tobin nods, then shakes her head, eyes a little wide. 

“You’re going to walk home in those?” She points to Christen’s boots, a few inches of heel on them. Chris shrugs, she’s used to it after years in LA, doesn’t even notice the difficulty. 

“Yeah, why?”

“No,” Tobin puts her half finished beer down on a nearby table, “I’ll drive you home. You’ve had five cups of wine, you’re probably going to fall and injure yourself walking in those.”

Christen wants to argue, wants to say she’s been walking in heels since she was 16, but something else snags her attention. 

“You know how many cups of wine I’ve had?” She asks, and Tobin’s cheeks instantly turn pink. She raises an eyebrow, waiting for the other girl’s response. 

“I-I yeah I mean I mostly guessed.” She says, rubbing the back of her neck. Christen smiles a little at it, and decides to let it go, nodding like that makes sense, and Tobin seems a little relived. 

“I can walk.” She tries, only halfway trying to argue against it. 

“Nope!” Tobin says brightly. “We need you in tip top shape for the season.”

“Tobin, that’s months from now.” She sags, rolling her eyes just a little. 

“Oh, did nobody tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“We have an off season, we play year round here.” Tobin says, and Christen can feel her face light up, can feel her smile widen. 

“Are you serious?” She asks, voice a little too loud, but Tobin doesn’t seem to mind, her smile growing too. 

“Dead serious. We started a few years ago when we realised we were all bored. There’s not as many games but we still practice at least once a week as a group and a lot of us do gym groups together.”

“Oh my god I knew I loved this town.” Christen breathes out and Tobin laughs again, bringing a flush to Christen’s cheeks. 

“Don’t we all.” Tobin says, voice fond as her eyes roam around the bar. “Anyways, let me know when you’re ready to leave, I’m good whenever, and I’ll take you home.”

“I’m ready when you are.” Christen hears herself say, even though she thought she might’ve wanted to stay a little longer, to surreptitiously watch Emily and Kelley to see if anything would actually, finally happen. 

“Really?” Tobin asks, and Christen finds herself nodding, and then following Tobin around to say goodbye to their remaining teammates. 

She studiously ignores both Kelley’s wink and Alex’s searching gaze as Tobin explains she’s driving them both home. When Allie starts to mention they live on opposite sides of town, Christen doesn’t miss the way Tobin cuts her off with a sharp look. It makes a weird sense of hope bloom in her chest. 

Once they’re in the car, Christen doesn’t know what to do with her hands. She taps them against her thighs for a bit, and then tries to keep them still in her lap, but her fingers end up tapping against her palms. 

“Restless?” Tobin asks, voice lazy. She’s got one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the gear shift and she looks so casually good that Christen’s mouth goes a little dry. 

“What did you mean earlier? When you called me unflappable?” She asks, and Tobin’s eyebrows raise at the question, before the blush comes back. 

“I don’t know,” she starts, moving both hands onto the steering wheel, “I guess you always just seem so collected? Like unmovable?”

“I don’t think I understand?” Christen asks, and Tobin sighs a little, shifting uncomfortably. Christen would stop with the questions, but Tobin is turning redder by the second and it’s a little too cute to watch her squirm. 

“I mean, when you first moved here nobody could figure you out, and then of all people to become friends with Kelley was your first friend. And she’s still your best friend.”

“I mean, yeah? I love Kelley.” She says, still confused. 

“I know, I know, it’s just Kelley can be so closed off, you know?” Christen nods, sort of understanding. “It’s just that nobody understood you, and then Kelley brought you to practice and you were a powerhouse, and you were barely out of breath by the end. You just seemed so... collected? Put together? Stoic I guess?”

“Are you trying to tell me I had a stick up my ass?” Christen asks, laughing a little inside at how wide Tobin’s eyes go. 

“No! No, no, no that’s not what I meant at all! I just meant you seemed so calm and self assured!” She’s panicked, trying not to offend, and Christen finally bursts out in laughter. 

“I’m messing with you.” She says, and Tobin’s mouth opens in shock for a second, before she laughs too. 

“That’s what I mean though,” she says as the pull onto Christen’s street, “you’re always taking me by surprise. I keep thinking I’ve figured you out, and then you do something unexpected.”

“Figured me out? I didn’t realise you were trying.” Christen says, a little pleased at the idea of it. 

“Christen,” Tobin turns to face her as she pulls up outside her house, “I’ve been trying to figure you out since the first day I met you.”

Her eyes are open, boring into Christen’s eyes, and it takes her breath away for a second, the intensity of it. 

“Oh.” She breathes out, her own cheeks flushing now. Tobin clears her throat and turns away, looking out the window towards the house. “Thank you for the ride.”

“Anytime, Chris.” She says, still not really looking at her, just at the house behind her. 

“Hey Tobin?” She asks as she opens the door.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been trying to figure you out too.” She says, relying on the last of her liquid courage for it. It’s worth it to see Tobin smile, finally putting her eyes back on Christen. 

“Oh okay, okay good.” She says with a nod, and Christen smiles back before closing the door. She walks up to her door knowing Tobin hasn’t moved, that she’s watching to make sure she gets in safely.

When she finally does get inside she leans back against the door and takes in a few deep breaths before moving into the house, and trying hard to ignore the fluttering in her chest. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is significantly harder to write than Here We Go Again, so it’s probably going to be a lot shorter. Let me know if you see any grammar/spelling mistakes! @herstuf on Tumblr

> Christen kind of expects Tobin to reach out, maybe with a text or more information about the “offseason” season. But she doesn’t, and Christen has to fight hard to ignore the way it stings, and she tries to focus on work. 
> 
> Filming videos in the wilderness for a yoga channel that teaches mindfulness and respect for the Earth was not where Christen thought her life would end up. She always pictured herself doing something athletic, but she thought it would be something team based, not this. Still, she likes it, more than she expected. 
> 
> She wakes up on the week days and takes her video camera and dogs with her to the small forest path, starting at the end of her neighbourhood. If she’s early enough, sometimes she’ll catch the soft light of the sun as it starts to peak through the trees. There’s a breathless beauty to the area, sometimes foggy and sometimes clear, that helps her steady her mind and move through the poses easily. 
> 
> At first it was uncomfortable, speaking aloud in the empty forest to a camera, but now she finds herself loving it. Loving the way it feels to lead the motions and speak about the breath coming in and out of her body. She might not have a physical, present audience, but she hopes the people who use the website find her videos as calming and cantering as she does. 
> 
> During the summer she films almost every day, Monday through Saturday, and stores some of them for the worst of the winter days. They don’t get much snow here, but enough that sometimes she can’t make it outside, so she saves some videos for those days. 
> 
> Normally the yoga is enough for her, enough exercise and enough movement to keep her body content, but less that two weeks after Tobin drives her home, Christen finds herself itching for it. She misses a ball at her feet, and while she’s a self proclaimed introvert, she misses her teammates. There’s only a few days left, until the first “offseason season” practice, but Christen is still too antsy to wait, and finds herself dragging a very unwilling Kelley to the practice field. 
> 
> They’re the only ones there, the park is a little out of town, and there’s a more popular one with swings and playset for children in the center of town, so there’s hardly ever people around. It’s refreshing, passing back and forth with Kelley, forcing Kelley to run a few drills with her she remembers from college. She’s actually impressed Kelley holds out so long, almost an hour, before asking. 
> 
> “So,” Kelley starts, stopping the ball at her feet, and Christen groans, “you and Tobin, huh?”
> 
> “What about me and Tobin?” Christen asks, rolling her eyes. 
> 
> “She drove you home.” Kelley says, waking towards her slowly and wiggling her eyebrows. 
> 
> “She was just being nice.”
> 
> “Nice?” Kelley says, rolling her eyes. “Tobin is great, but she’s never offered to drive me home, and we live two minutes away from each other, not clear across town.”
> 
> “Okay so maybe not being nice,” Kelley snorts a little, “but I think she was just worried I would stumble in my heels, and she wants me so she can win. We both know she’s almost as competitive as you are.”
> 
> It’s what Christen’s been trying to tell herself for the last few weeks, trying to rationalise why Tobin hasn’t reached out. It makes it easier to swallow if she thinks about Tobin as she used to, all collected and aloof, instead of blushing and cute, and caring about Christen getting home safe. 
> 
> “Okay look I can’t argue that she probably does care about that, but I can argue that I’ve never seen Tobin look twice at someone, not since Shirley, and she’s definitely looked more than twice at you.” 
> 
> “Who’s Shirley?” Christen asks, ignoring Kelley’s other words. She’s heard the name before, but nobody ever seems willing to talk about her or who she was here. Kelley just shakes her head, expression going dark for a second. 
> 
> “She’s a piece of shit, that’s what.” She takes in a deep breath. “But that’s not my story so don’t ask me.”
> 
> “Kelley, are you passing up on gossip?” Christen asks, throwing a hand to her chest in take surprise. 
> 
> “Shut up!” Kelley laughs, kicking the ball toward Christen’s stomach. She catches it easily, laughs a little with Kelley, before dropping the ball and dribbling it around Kelley, who immediately gives chase. 
> 
> They manage another half hour before Kelley finally claims a need to stop. They get coffee, and take it back to Christen’s so she can let the dogs out to the back yard. 
> 
> “You know I was just teasing, right?” Kelley asks suddenly, and Christen looks over to see her frowning at the floor. 
> 
> “Yeah Kel, of course I do, why?”
> 
> “I just,” Kelley shrugs, still frowning, “you’re my best friend, I know I’m not always easy to talk to about these things, but I am here if you want to talk about it.”
> 
> Warmth blooms through Christen’s chest, and she smiles at Kelley, pulling her into a quick hug. Kelley smiles back so Christen squeezes her hand once before stepping into the kitchen to make them sandwiches. 
> 
> “I know you’re there for me Kelley, don’t worry.”
> 
> “Okay.” Kelley says, and then flips on the couch to turn on one of her reality tv shows. Christen groans when she sees it’s Love Island, but has learned not to argue with Kelley about her reality tv, and instead focuses on the sandwiches. 
> 
> She gets a text, two hours later, Kelley passed out on the couch and the sandwiches long finished. Christen’s heart stops when she sees who it’s from, but disappointment follows soon after when she sees the rest of the recipients. 
> 
> ** Tobin: Hey everyone, practice next Tuesday at 7 pm. I know you can all make it so don’t pretend you can’t. Get ready for the burn!!! **
> 
> ** Ali: we all hate you **
> 
> ** Alex: no we don’t  **
> 
> ** Ali: fine, Ashlynn and I hate you **
> 
> ** Ashlynn: don’t drag me into this **
> 
> ** Ali: is no one on my side? **
> 
> ** Allie: nope **
> 
> ** Alex: no **
> 
> ** Emily: nope! **
> 
> ** Ali: rude **
> 
> Christen closes out of the chat, ignoring the next few messages and staring into space. It’s not that she’s hurt exactly, but it does sting a little to know that if Tobin had really wanted to, she could have easily texted Christen any time the past few weeks. 
> 
> Kelley wakes a few minutes later, and groans when she reads the texts, but doesn’t respond to the chat either. She helps Christen pull the dogs inside, before they leave to grab take out and come above for more love island. 
> 
> Just after they finish eating their dinner, Kelley’s phone chimes six times in a row, and then begins ringing. She rolls her yes when she looks at who it is, but Christen can see a smile pulling at her lips. 
> 
> “What do you want, Emily?” Kelley asks, and Christen can’t hold in the snort. She might not really understand Kelley and Emily’s not-relationship, but she knows enough that Kelley is about to leave Christen for whatever dumb idea Emily has now. 
> 
> Kelley listens quietly for a minute, nodding and humming a few times, before turning an evaluating look on Christen, before nodding. 
> 
> “Yeah she’s in, we’ll be there in twenty.” Kelley hangs up, and turns to Christen with a bright smile on her face. “Grab your cleats babe, we’re having a party!”
> 
> “A what?” Christen asks, and Kelley rolls her eyes. 
> 
> “Okay so not a party-party, but a pick up party! Some of the gals are going to field for a nighttime game. Grab your cleats and change your clothes and lets go go go!”
> 
> Christen laughs, but does as she’s told, and they’re in Kelley’s car driving back to the field a few minutes later. When they arrive Christen is surprised by how many people are there, a little over half the team and some friends and family as well. 
> 
> “Kelley, Christen, over here!” Emily calls, and Kelley runs straight to her side, leaving Christen to grab their water bottles and cleats. She laughs as Kelley jumps onto Emily’s back, almost knocking them over, before she jumps down and starts chatting away. Christen tries not to watch to closely, but doesn’t miss the fond look in Emily’s eyes as she watches Kelley ramble on. 
> 
> “Okay who’s here.” Ali says, suddenly on Christen’s right, and starts counting the people. She frowns at the end and turns to the groups of people standing around. “Did anyone text Tobin or Alex?” She asks, and everyone shakes their heads. She rolls her eyes before turning to Christen. “I’ll text Alex, you text Tobin. They’ll both be so pissed if they miss this, and we’ll never hear the end of it.”
> 
> Christen wants to argue, wants to say she can’t or that she should text Alex, but she can’t think of a good way to do it without coming off suspicious, and she doesn’t want Ali questioning her, so she pulls out her phone and tries not to think too hard about it. 
> 
> ** Chris: there’s a pickup game starting in 10 **
> 
> ** Tobin: omw **
> 
> ** Tobin: thanks **
> 
> The response is immediate, and it irritates Christen to know Tobin has her phone close enough, yet hasn’t used it to talk to her in weeks. She knows it’s irrational, that she could have reached out too, but she’s still annoyed by it. 
> 
> The teams are picked before Alex and Tobin arrive, and Christen finds herself oddly grateful to be opposite Tobin, with Kelley and Ashlynn on her side. The game is easy, hardly anyone runs, and it’s all laughter and illegal tackles. As it goes on some people peel off, home to kids or bed, but Kelley stays. Christen suspects it’s so she and Emily can keep doing their weird brand of flirting, but she’s a good friend so she doesn’t say anything about it, even when the two keep tackling each other with or without the ball. Christen finds herself near Ali and Alex for the most part, the ball snapping back and for the between the three of them as they lazily pass, and Christen can’t actually remember which one of them is on her side, but it’s fun and relaxing, and Christen finds herself grinning throughout it. 
> 
> Eventually the three of them start playing keep away, and Christen tries making her way to the goal. She doesn’t notice that Tobin has started inching closer, only that Alex and Ali are following her, both trying to steal the ball away. She’s laughing, barely just into the box, when a foot slides between her legs and the ball gets passed to Alex who takes off with it. 
> 
> Christen turns around too fast, and her legs get tangled with the one still between hers. They both go down, and Christen laughs as her back hits the ground, the other person landing a little on top of her. She’s still laughing when she looks up to see Tobin leaning over her, laughing with her. Tobin has grass stuck to the side of her face and hair, and Christen’s hand is moving before she thinks about it, brushing it off gently. 
> 
> Tobin’s laugh dies, her face going blank, and Christen’s hand freezes, two fingers pressed to her cheek. They’re close, Tobin half leaning on her, face only inches apart, and Christen has never felt more like a cliche than in this moment. Because she wants to reach up, to run her nose along Tobin’s. She can’t stop her eyes from dropping, to Tobin’s mouth forsecond and then back up to Tobin’s eyes. 
> 
> Tobin is staring at her lips, eyes dark, and Christen’s breath catches at how beautiful she looks. She watches as Tobin leans closer, lets her mouth part open slightly, before Tobin is suddenly yanking herself away, and then running after the ball. 
> 
> Christen huffs, head thumping against the ground for a second before pulling herself up. Nobody is looking at her, too focused on the ball across the pitch, so nobody says anything as she walks to the sidelines and changes out of her cleats. She watches the game a bit more, but avoids looking at Tobin, even when she has the ball. Eventually Kelley and Emily come to sit with her, changing into their sneakers. The game fizzles out, and nobody really seems to know if there was ever a score or not, and Christen climbs into Kelley’s car without a word to anyone else. She smiles and waves goodbye to people as they filter past, but otherwise waits quietly with the window rolled down for Kelley to finish saying goodbye (or whatever it is they’re doing) to Emily. 
> 
> She’s squinting out the driver’s window, trying to see if Kelley has bucked up enough courage to finally try and make a move, so she doesn’t notice anyone coming up to her window. 
> 
> “Hey.” Tobin says softly, and Christen jumps about a foot out of her seat. 
> 
> “Jesus fuck, Tobin, don’t do that!” She whisper shouts, hand pressed to her rapidly beating heart. Tobin’s mouth quirks up in a small smile, and Christen rolls her eyes at it. “What do you want?” She asks, and they both cringe at how harsh her voice sounds. 
> 
> “Uh I wanted to say sorry.” Tobin’s hand reaches up to rub her neck, and she looks away from Christen. 
> 
> “Sorry for what?” Christen asks, voice still a little too flat. 
> 
> “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable or anything,” she says, and Christen’s eyebrow creases in confusion, “and it won’t happen again.”
> 
> “Make me uncomfortable?” Christen asks, and Tobin nods. “Tobin, what are you talking about?”
> 
> “Well, I-uh I figured after I drove you home and you didn’t text or call, I figured I made you uncomfortable. And then today on the pitch when we fell, you were brushing grass off me, and I know you were just being nice, so I shouldn’t have you know, reacted the way I did. So I just-“
> 
> “Tobin shut up.” Christen interrupts, and her mouth immediately closes. “I wasn’t uncomfortable, not when you drove me home and not today.”
> 
> “You weren’t?” Tobin asks, and Christen honestly cannot figure out how Tobin could think that she was. She rolls her eyes, suddenly annoyed by the whole situation. 
> 
> “Tobin I was waiting for you to reach out. I thought I made it clear that I was attracted to you.” Tobin’s eyes go wide at that, and Christen fights back a snort as she blinks a little owlishly. 
> 
> “No, I uh, that wasn’t clear.” She says, but then a smirk takes over her face and she rests her arms on the window frame. “So you’re attracted to me, huh?”
> 
> Christen stares at her incredulously for a second, before bursting out laughing. Tobin pulls back, face closed off, and Christen scrabbles to reach a hand out for her arm before she pulls away entirely. 
> 
> “Sorry, sorry!” She says, pulling her back closer to the window. “I’m not laughing at that, it’s just, you’re giving me whiplash here.”
> 
> Tobin’s face softens, and she smiles a bit back at Christen’s fading laughter. Tobin looks away, towards where Kelley and Emily are still leaning against Emily’s car, before looking back to Christen. 
> 
> “I’ll call you, okay?” She says, and Christen smiles wide at her. 
> 
> “I’d like that.” Feeling bold, she lifts her torso out the window to kiss Tobin on the cheek. When she pulls back, Tobin is killing an ever cheeks are bright red. 
> 
> “Okay, good.”
> 
> “Good.”
> 
> “Okay, yeah, uh bye.” Tobin says, rubbing her neck as she walks away with a small smile on her face. Christen watches as she leaves, gets in her car and drives away, before turning back to face forward. 
> 
> “So,” Kelley says a few minutes later, getting into the car, “how was Tobin?”
> 
> “How was Emily?” Christen smirks. 
> 
> “Touché.” Kelley sticks out her tongue before driving them back to Christen’s. 


End file.
